Technology is changing retail banking in El Paso, as it is nationally. Chase Bank is replacing many of its traditional teller windows with new, shiny silver, touch-screen ATMs as a way to reduce costs and speed customer service.

The latest generation of ATMs were installed last month in front of teller windows at seven of Chase's 10 El Paso branches, and they will be installed in August in an eighth branch at 2829 Montana. The branches continue to offer traditional teller services.

"Clearly, this is a more cost effective way for us to provide services and allows us to invest (more) in technology," Steve Wacker, senior vice president and retail market manager for Chase's Southwest Texas market, said from his Austin office. "We are giving customers a choice to use this new technology or go to a teller."

GECU, El Paso's largest credit union, last week opened its eighth automated branch, dubbed Neighborhood Branches, which use virtual tellers to handle money transactions and other services.

The small, high-tech branches allow GECU to have more branches and to operate them for longer hours than traditional ones, said Ceci Davila, GECU senior vice president of operations. GECU plans to open two more high-tech branches on the West Side this year and one in Socorro by early 2016.

"Every year we're trying to add four or five locations," Davila said.

Wacker said Chase began testing the use of ATMs in place of traditional tellers at some banks nationally about two years ago, and began putting them inside branches in Texas and across the country in January.

Customer satisfaction scores went up at branches where the new automated teller machines have been added, which, he said, is an indication that many customers are liking the changes.

The El Paso branches have a Chase employee at the ATMs to help customers use them. But many El Paso customers are still balking at the change.

"A lot of people don't want to take the time to learn to use it," reported Yvette Pacheco, a Chase teller, who last week stood near two ATMs at the Chase branch at 7598 N. Mesa encouraging customers to use the machines. At one point in the late morning last Wednesday, several people waited in line at one regular teller window while the two automated teller machines stood idle.

Some customers don't have their Chase debit card, which is needed to use the ATMs, Pacheco said. One man told her that he didn't want to use the ATMs because he believes the automation will eliminate jobs, she said.

Wacker said Chase branches in El Paso will have fewer tellers in the future, but some staff will be shifted to other jobs, such as personal bankers or other services, and most job cuts will be done through attrition, he said.

Chase employs 160 people in El Paso.

Mike Rivera, 48, decided to give the new ATM a try last week at the West Side Chase branch after being encouraged by Branch Manager Tom Norris to use it to deposit a check rather than waiting in line for a real teller.

"I will use this the next time I come in," Rivera said after getting a quick lesson on how to use the ATM.

Rivera said he'll still opt for a real teller if he decides a transaction is too complex for a machine. Or he'd choose a real teller "if she's pretty," he quipped.

The new ATMs can dispense dollar bills and other small denominations of money and not just $20 bills as the bank's old ATMs do. It also can accept cash deposits of up to 50 bills, and provide an on-screen photo of deposited checks and print a copy of the check if the customer wants it.

The ATMs can now do about 50 percent of the transactions performed by a real teller, and "within two years, we expect the ATMs will perform 90 percent of the transactions now done at teller windows" as more software upgrades are made on the machines, Wacker said.

GECU's Davila said the credit union's members, which number more than 331,000, have grown to like the credit union's high-tech branches, which GECU started opening in 2011.

"When we first opened them, some people were intimidated. But once we show them how easy it is to use, they quickly learn, and love it," Davila said.

The GECU personal teller machines have video screens, which connect to a teller located inside GECU's headquarters on Airway Boulevard in East El Paso. About 30 tellers work in GECU's operations center over three shifts daily to assist customers using the virtual teller machines. The automated machines can do most of the transactions handled by a live teller.

About five employees also are located at each of the high-tech branches to help people use the teller machines and to also help them open accounts, get a loan, or provide financial counseling, Davila said. The high-tech branches also have a virtual office, where a customer can connect with a GECU loan officer via video screen to apply for a loan.

GECU visited a North Carolina credit union, which uses high-tech branches exclusively, before it began putting them in El Paso, Davila said. Several credit unions around the country are operating high-tech branches, she said.

But Davila and Chase's Wacker said retail banking branches will continue to operate because they are important components for serving customers.

"We will always have branches," Wacker said. "They are a very important part of how our customers bank. We see them becoming more advice centers" for customers to get advice on loans, credit cards, investments, and other financial matters, he said.